Carisbrook corporate boxes last to go

A mechanical excavator stands beneath Carisbrook's terrace
hospitality complex as demolition of the old ground entered
its final phase yesterday. Photo by Gerard O'Brien.

The demolition of Carisbrook is entering its final stage
as contractors turn their attention to the old ground's
corporate box complex.

However, the site's new owner, Calder Stewart, has already
secured the return of the $200,000 bond it paid to the
Dunedin City Council as part of its purchase agreement.

Council city property assistant manager Rhonda Abercrombie
yesterday confirmed the council had returned the bond paid by
the company as part of last year's $3.5 million sale of
Carisbrook.

That followed the results of an independent report, which
last month concluded the company had complied with a
requirement to have the old venue's grandstands - except the
four-storey hospitality complex - demolished by Christmas,
she said.

''As per the clause, $200,000 of the sale price has been
refunded to Calder Stewart as a paper transaction,'' she
said.

Southern Demolition owner Alan Edge said his staff had now
turned their attention to the hospitality complex.

Work to remove it began in earnest yesterday and was expected
to take two months, and would be a ''reasonably difficult''
job, he said.

''It's a reasonably difficult building because you've got a
power station beside it ... We don't want to shut down South
Dunedin.

''There's a degree of difficulty in it, being high and being
concrete.''

Piles of rubble remaining on site would also be crushed into
aggregate over the next two months and recycled using
specialist machinery to be brought to the site, Mr Edge said.

The aggregate would then be used in future development on
site, possibly for roads or foundations, he said.

''There's quite a bit of recycling that's going to happen in
the next two months.''

All work was expected to be completed in two months, leaving
behind a cleared, fenced, vacant site.

The only clue to the old ground's former existence would be
the historic brick Neville St turnstile building, which would
form part of a pocket park in the area.

Calder Stewart's deal to buy the old ground was confirmed in
June last year.

The company agreed to pay $3.5 million, including a $200,000
bond, which was to be returned if the stadium's grandstands -
but not the terrace hospitality complex - were demolished
within six months.

The deal left the council with a $3.418 million loss after
buying Carisbrook from the Otago Rugby Football Union for $7
million in 2009.

The loss comprised a $2.256 million cash loss on the sale to
Calder Stewart, and additional holding costs totalling $1.162
million.

The repayment of the $200,000 bond was included in the
calculations, meaning the council's total loss would not
rise.

$13 million odd to build, 13 odd years old, probably only
been full 100 times, and it's being demolished, the sort of
thing you might say expect in a place like Las Vegas, it is
unreal to think it's happening here. Ok, we are unfortunately
stuck with the stadium draining our coffers, but I would have
thought a modern building like this would have been at least
converted for re-use in a redevelopment. Technically, the
waste of this being built, only to be demolished, such a
short time later, should be added to the true cost of the
great saga of detrimental wastage the stadium has been, and
will continue to be. The corporate place has balconies, the
lot, 4 storeys high, it could have been done out as a hotel,
retirement place, clubrooms, apartments, in fact there's 101
things it could have been re-used for. But no, while many
clubs and societies have small often run down, poky places,
this building gets torn to the ground. Modern buildings in
their prime get torn down after a few years in Las Vegas, but
needless to say, they at least got to pay for themselves,
used daily, in the city of mllionaires.

This I guess one of the final chapters in the utter
wastrelness that the stadium is. Lost for words. Amazing how
those behind all this from the outset can sleep at night. But
they do, and comfortably.